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I haven't seen Apple be out done in the design department, Lenovo +1 for now...

M

MVApple

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 18, 2008
527
1
I've always admired Apple's laptops for their design. I haven't seen another manufacturer get fully powered laptops as thin as Apple's, untill recently of course. Dell and Lenovo have unleashed some new laptops that break the under 1" thickness (all around), and I'm not talking about the X3000 or the Voodoo Envy or even the Macbook Air since these use special hardware to achieve their thinness and are not fully powered laptops.

The Lenovo U330 comes into play now though...,

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...-category-id=8EFAD587E2724C6D8A32A8D5048982CF

...or at least it will in a few weeks when it starts shipping, which according to rumors will be close to the time when the new macbook should be announced.

Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P7350 ( 2GHz 1GHz 3MB ) 1
Operating system: Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 1
Display type: 13.3 WXGA LED Backlight TFT 1280x800 1
System graphics: ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB 1
Total memory: 2 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz 1
Hard drive: 250GB 5400 1
Optical device: DVD Recordable 1
Bluetooth: Bluetooth Version 2.0 + EDR 1
Communication adapter: Intel Wireless Wi-Fi Link 5100 1
Pointing device: Industry Standard Touchpad 1
Weight: 4.36 lbs 1
Battery: 6 Cell Lithium-Ion

Sale Price as of today $1199

Thats what Apple will have to measure the new macbook against in my opinion. Now I understand this doesn't run OSX or that it may be too glossy, but the fact is that this has an LED backlight, a dedicated video card, is 0.64lbs lighter, and is thinner at 0.9" thick and while the gloss may be a little overdone for some people's taste, it is still a very nice design. Also, according to the Lenovo website the U330 will have a blu-ray drive as an option, although the price for that will probably be too expensive for most, my guess is it'll be a $500 option later on, based on what they charge for blu-ray drives in their other notebooks.

As I said before, I haven't seen Apple out done in the design department yet, but I think Lenovo set the bar pretty high with this laptop. Montevina is supposed to allow for laptops to be lighter and smaller, and lets face it the Macbook Pro at 5.4lbs with a 15" screen is very light for its size, but the 13" macbook is a bloated heavy weight at 5lbs.

I'm hoping that Montevina along with the move to an aluminum macbook will bring in some nice weight savings, and if the Lenovo hints at whats to come, looking at Apple's track record I'm getting pretty excited for whats to come this October.

Opinions?
 
tuffluffjimmy said:
oh sexy. I guess I was just looking at a bad picture of it. although it does look like a blatent rip off of the MacBook.
Click to expand...

I agree with you this time. It looks like they really tried to copy the macbook but somehow failed. It does look better than other pc laptops but not better than the looks of the macbook. the 0.1 difference in thickness is nothing.
 
Sorry, I don't see how this is Apple being "outdone". Yes i know you stated several time that you haven't seen Apple being outdone, but giving Lenovo +1 in that area is not the right choice given the past actions of that company.

maybe it is a marginal improvement over the Macbook Air because of some hardware that can now fit under 1".

The simple fact is that we are reaching to the point of time where everything is small enough that we can get laptops of 1". Apple just saw what was happening and wanted to push the limits of the current technology.

Just because another laptop manufacturer got something better isn't because they are better than Apple in the design department, it is more likely because the company didn't have the guts to do it themselves first and Lenovo wanted to maintain the same famous IBM thinkpad look so that they can keep the current base buying their brand and models. They kept the same look for the last 6 years straight.

Everybody has the same access to the same technology that Apple has, it is the question of who's willing to take risks and go with it.

Apple is the company who's "always" about taking the risks and going with it.

I quote "always" cuz i know Apple isnt perfect, they made mistakes and i am sure in some area, apple is just rehashing something that has already been done. But you must admit, over the past several years, Apple is the brand that has been coming up with trend leading designs.


+1 for Apple taking the risk.
 
What the OP is saying isn't that he's going to buy this (or considering it). It's that now that the other PC manufacturers are starting to get close to Apple's designs and specs, Apple will need to step it up. If Lenovo can stuff just as many features (AND a dedicated GPU) into a smaller chassis than the MB then obviously Apple has room to improve.
 
funny, I'm considering the U330 right now. :)

i saw one in the flesh last week and it's real nice. solid build, thin, and the specs are VERY nice. nice video card, ddr3 ram, and big HDD.

i'm waiting on the macbook announcements though to see whether it's worth it to get the new macbook & sell my old one first, or go ahead with the u330, keeping my old macbook as well.

btw, i was on lenovo's site, and using the USPIDEASAVINGS code (exp 9/15), you can get the higher end version (3gb ram, 320gb hdd), for $1,169.10 (saving ~$180).
 
Brien said:
What the OP is saying isn't that he's going to buy this (or considering it). It's that now that the other PC manufacturers are starting to get close to Apple's designs and specs, Apple will need to step it up. If Lenovo can stuff just as many features (AND a dedicated GPU) into a smaller chassis than the MB then obviously Apple has room to improve.
Click to expand...


The question I now ask you, is why is Apple the one that everybody is looking at first, why can't any other company come up with their own specs and designs. You said it yourself, Lenovo can add the same stuff into smaller chassis and better than MB, so why didn't they do it before Apple?
 
Nothing will ever win against the macbook in design for me unless it has a cute little apple glowing in the back. That's the best part of the design of the mb in my opinion.

This one is a pretty good deal for the features though. I wish the macbook would be updated to rival it, especially the video card part :(
 
Actually since the RAM for the more expensive one is 3gb,
it seems that it only has pre-santa rosa motherboard.
(MacBook use the better Santa Rosa mobo which can use 4gb of RAM).

It comes with vista. That's -1 there automatically.
 
macbook too heavy

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I'm so glad someone has pointed out the obvious. 5lbs for a 13 inch screen (while perhaps pretty good back when the macbook was first introduced) is too heavy. I think every other laptop with a 13 inch screen (and i'm talking about fully functional laptops not mini notebooks like the macbook air) are lighter than the macbook. I'm not trying to bash apple. I just think there is clear room for improvement and that's why no matter how long it takes (and I've been waiting since last year!) I'll wait for the next revision of the macbook and hope they pack in some extra features and lose a pound:D:D:D
 
Brien said:
What the OP is saying isn't that he's going to buy this (or considering it). It's that now that the other PC manufacturers are starting to get close to Apple's designs and specs, Apple will need to step it up. If Lenovo can stuff just as many features (AND a dedicated GPU) into a smaller chassis than the MB then obviously Apple has room to improve.
Click to expand...

Exactly.

This Lenovo is a pretty competitive offering. Good specs, good design, good price. Obviously, no one is going to convince anyone here that a Vista laptop could be as good as an OSX laptop (I don't think that was the OP intention anyway). At least in the PC side of the market, this thing is a very good option. Is it better than a current Macbook? As far as I'm concerned, without OSX it's useless, but having said that, I will definitly get one for my wife (who can't stand macs for some reasons....I TRIED to get her to see the light :p but after 5 years, I gave up!!)
 
Brien said:
What the OP is saying isn't that he's going to buy this (or considering it). It's that now that the other PC manufacturers are starting to get close to Apple's designs and specs, Apple will need to step it up. If Lenovo can stuff just as many features (AND a dedicated GPU) into a smaller chassis than the MB then obviously Apple has room to improve.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I'm trying to say, thankyou. OSX lovers will only be able to get their fix from Apple, but you have to remember that there are a lot of people who are attracted to the specs and asthetics of a laptop and the majority of people won't limit themselves to just picking up a macbook because it runs OSX.

MikhailT said:
The question I now ask you, is why is Apple the one that everybody is looking at first, why can't any other company come up with their own specs and designs. You said it yourself, Lenovo can add the same stuff into smaller chassis and better than MB, so why didn't they do it before Apple?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Other companies do come up with their own specs and design. The U330 does not look like a copy of a macbook, no one is going to see the U330 and think "oh a Macbook". If Lenovo didn't come out with better specs before Apple, maybe its because they simply couldn't, but that doesn't really matter now.

Consultant said:
Actually since the RAM for the more expensive one is 3gb,
it seems that it only has pre-santa rosa motherboard.
(MacBook use the better Santa Rosa mobo which can use 4gb of RAM).

It comes with vista. That's -1 there automatically.
Click to expand...

Pre-Santa Rosa? Not a chance, this is a Montevina laptop. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but the only reason it has 3gb and not 4gb is because windows Vista 32bit is limited to 3gb of memory. Move up to 64bit vista and you can have 4gb of memory, a software not a hardware limitation.

Saturn1217 said:
Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I'm so glad someone has pointed out the obvious. 5lbs for a 13 inch screen (while perhaps pretty good back when the macbook was first introduced) is too heavy. I think every other laptop with a 13 inch screen (and i'm talking about fully functional laptops not mini notebooks like the macbook air) are lighter than the macbook. I'm not trying to bash apple. I just think there is clear room for improvement and that's why no matter how long it takes (and I've been waiting since last year!) I'll wait for the next revision of the macbook and hope they pack in some extra features and lose a pound:D:D:D
Click to expand...

I'm glad someone agrees with me on the weight issue. :D Let's hope montevina along with an aluminum housing is enough to knock off that extra pound of baby fat.:p I have to say though, that an under 5lb 15" macbook pro would look very tempting to me.

Anyways, I'm not here trying to bash Apple. Like I said Apple has an incredible design team and I think it'll be out of the ordinary for Apple to not have something that can compete spec and design wise. Hopefully the price drop they are announcing doesn't hurt things. My wish is for Apple to offer a high end macbook with a 13" led screen, possible a higher res screen than wxga, shave off about a pound of weight and put in in BTO blu-ray option. The blu-ray might be a dream at this point though.
 
Trajectory said:
It looks like an IBM Thinkpad.
Click to expand...

Yes it does, and in any event it looks more like a Macbook and Dell M1330 hybrid.

Either way, someone call me when there's a PC with a real trackpad, and not those tiny things that are on those plastic cases right now. OH! and call me when Lenovo gets a real warranty, one where I can just walk in the store drop my machine off, and get it back when the geeks give me a call.

Not an OSX fanboy/lover, but as far as design goes, all laptops will be square, or wedged in some type of square like fashion. To say that one square is better designed than another is worthless. To say that this square has a design that allows it to have SLI in a 1" thin package throughout the width of the machine, and runs cool while on battery for up to 3 hours is something.

Square black box, square white box.... same d@mn thing.

Markleshark said:
I have an open mind, and I've extensively used Vista, and no, no it isnt.
Click to expand...

I have, and wanted it to be a true contender. Sadly, it just doesn't cut it. One of the smoothest experiences I've had is when a Windows Zealot couldn't get their thumb drive to work with it. But it worked just fine in XP and Mac OS X on my MBP.

Everything else has been an uphill battle.
 
MacBooks are a little too heavy, but not enough to notice for me personally. It's lighter than two MacBook Airs, which is good enough for me.

On a side note, I still like the MacBook's design. It's sleek, elegant, curvy, and I'm not biased because of an OS X opinion, I use PC's daily, and some like Sony are right up there when it comes to looks with the MacBook, but Lenovo, regardless of the specs, has a very poor design. The plastic on the machine looks extremely tacky, and the connectors are multi-colored, which looks really bad in my opinion.
 
Markleshark said:
I have an open mind, and I've extensively used Vista, and no, no it isnt.
Click to expand...

I guess your mind isn't open enough, because vista is great for some. It's an opinion. Don't state yours as fact. I like it, some don't does that matter? Not at all. Sure I don't use it as much as OS X, but I wouldn't mind using it as my only computer if I didn't have the choice to use OS X.
 
tuffluffjimmy said:
I guess your mind isn't open enough, because vista is great for some. It's an opinion. Don't state yours as fact. I like it, some don't does that matter? Not at all. Sure I don't use it as much as OS X, but I wouldn't mind using it as my only computer if I didn't have the choice to use OS X.
Click to expand...

Vista stinks. Period. It's bloated, slow, and ram hogging. And it's not very compatible with software. It's pretty cool looking, but under the hood, it's just trash. And it's not stable, BSODs are an example.
 
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